Where’s the snow?

Last week we were expecting some snow, but it chose to ignore Park City and its mountains with a weather that remained stubbornly mild at that time of the year. This reminded me of two key factors: precipitations and temperatures. 

In order to get some natural snow we need both and in the absence of precipitation we need cold weather to produce man-made snow as a last resort. In the absence of cold, then we really are out of luck and this new reality might confirm that global warming is slowly ushering in. So what can we expect in our future? 

A continued average temperature rise and with it, an elevation of the snow line, which means much shorter ski seasons and a continued advantage for ski resorts located at higher elevations, along the line of what’s observed today in the southern hemisphere where the ski season is now pretty much limited to three months of the year. 

If and when this happens let’s hope for a gradual change spread over many, many years!